Brent Rasmussen, President of Careerbuilder Targets Job Opportunities
Tuesday, October 20, 2009SUSIE GHARIB: Some encouraging news today for job seekers. A new survey shows that American businesses still plan to hire seasonal workers this holiday season in spite of the recession. According to Careerbuilder, one in five employers will be hiring. Joining us now with the release of Careerbuilder's holiday hiring outlook is Brent Rasmussen, president of the online jobs site. Mr. Rasmussen, welcome to NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT.
BRENT RASMUSSEN, PRESIDENT, CAREERBUILDER: Thanks for having me. Thanks.
GHARIB: Let's just begin by who is doing the hiring? What types of companies?
RASMUSSEN: We're seeing hiring from the retail side of the business for seasonal hiring. We're seeing admin and clerical. We're seeing in the industries, actually technology and finance and accounting which was kind of surprising. But the typical ones, shipping and delivery, inventory controls are ones that we're seeing the most common.
GHARIB: So you're saying about 18 percent of the companies that you surveyed are going to be doing the hiring. Put this in perspective for us. Is this more or less than in the past couple of years?
RASMUSSEN: It's really on a par with what we found last year. Seventeen percent was the number last year, 18 percent this year. We're finding that employers are a little more optimistic, but we're still seeing them being very cautious about adding full-time employers or excuse me, employees to their payroll.
GHARIB: And what about trends in pay? Are they higher? Are they lower or are they just about the same what they were last year, for example?
RASMUSSEN: They're mostly flat and unfortunately they're somewhat down. Employers don't have to pay as much as they had to last year for the same worker. Twelve percent of the people actually told us they were going to increase and pay more this year. Unfortunately 15 percent said they were going to pay a little bit less. Forty four percent of our people that we surveyed said they're going to pay more than $10 an hour and 54 percent are going to pay between $6 and $10 an hour, so it's very consistent with what we saw during the last holiday season.
GHARIB: One thing I found that was interesting in your survey is that a number of the companies that you surveyed said that many of these seasonal jobs could turn into permanent jobs after the holiday. Now how widespread is that?
RASMUSSEN: That actually surprised me a little bit as well. Thirty one percent of the employers that we talked to said you're basically on audition and if do you a good job we will put you on and we will hire you full-time. So that's encouraging news to those people that are going into seasonal opportunities and temporary help and turning that into full-time employment. So that was great news from my perspective.
GHARIB: So if it's kind of like an audition, obviously there's going to be a lot of competition to get those permanent jobs after the holiday season. What are some of the tips or advice that you could give to job seekers of the do's and don'ts so that they can land one of those permanent jobs?
RASMUSSEN: It's a great question. First thing is you need to apply early. A lot of the people we talked to said they're not accepting any applications after the November season. Another thing is you got to do your homework, understand the company you're going to talk to, understand what they do and what their mission is. Another one that I thought was really interesting was dress the part. A lot of the, especially in the retail segment said we have people come in that weren't dressed in our clothes and we didn't hire them. So know who you're going to interview with. Be enthusiastic, show a lot of passion for what you want to do and be a part of the organization and lastly you got to be flexible. They're looking for part-time help. They're looking for you to be a team player and as a potential employee you got to show a lot of flexibility.
GHARIB: We're getting reports that the economy is still struggling. You heard at the top of our program, also I saw another survey today that consumers are not expected to spend as much as they did last year in the holiday season. How could this throw off the hiring plans that right now companies are saying that these temporary jobs are going to become permanent once. That could change couldn't it after the holiday?
RASMUSSEN: It certainly could. You have high unemployment. You have tight credit. You have very cautious consumers and obviously businesses are going to be very cautious with their hiring needs going forward. So if they have a disappointing holiday season, obviously that 31 percent could change drastically and they won't need those full-time employees that they projected that they may need if they had a stronger holiday season in terms of consumer spending.
GHARIB: A very difficult job market. Thank you so much for coming on the program and telling us about your results.
RASMUSSEN: My pleasure, thank you.
GHARIB: We've been speaking with Brent Rasmussen, president of Careerbuilder.
